EDITORIAL - Cavalier attitude

The rare aspect of this incident is that all 134 passengers and the crew of 44 were rescued. What was depressingly commonplace was the sinking of yet another inter-island commercial ship, this time off the coast of Iloilo. The cargo and passenger vessel Asia Malaysia started listing at around 6 a.m. yesterday off Calabasas Island in Ajuy, Iloilo. Less than three hours later, it sank completely, after everyone had abandoned ship.

Many others have not been as lucky. Thousands of people have died in maritime disasters in this country in the past decades. Stormy weather compounded by aging ships and incompetent or negligent crews have led to ships colliding, catching fire, or sinking when buffeted even by a mild storm. Several of the worst maritime disasters occurred during holiday periods, when ships were packed to the hilt with cargo and passengers.

Several of the major shipping lines have upgraded their fleets over the years, but improvement in compliance with maritime safety rules has been slower. Some of the worst maritime disasters in recent years involved major shipping operators. Even keeping an accurate passenger manifest seems to be a problem for a number of shipping companies. Violations are worse among smaller operators. And if you want to take a commercial outrigger for inter-island travel, don’t expect safety rules to apply; just bring your own life vest, and make sure you can swim.

The snail’s pace of reforms in the maritime industry can be attributed to the fact that few shipping operators are sufficiently penalized for failure to keep their passengers and cargo safe. Ships are grounded but quickly allowed to resume operations as soon as the publicity over a disaster dies down and the operator convinces enough officials that grounding its fleet jeopardizes Philippine maritime transportation.

It can take more than a decade before survivors of maritime disasters or relatives of fatalities can collect compensation from shipping companies. And how many shipping operators have been sent to prison for passenger deaths? Seeing everyone getting away with negligence creates a cavalier attitude toward maritime safety rules. Until the government can make players in the shipping industry accountable for the safety of their passengers and cargo, there will be many more maritime disasters in this archipelago. And unlike in the sinking of MV Asia Malaysia, most of the disasters will be deadly.